Diplomat’s testimony inflames impeachment battle

The top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, testified to House committees on Tuesday that President Donald Trump withheld military aid to the country until it signaled it would investigate his political rivals.

Does this mean there was a quid pro quo? Taylor said administration officials wanted Ukraine to open the investigations in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland allegedly told Taylor that “everything” depended on a public announcement of the investigations. The president’s opponents argue that using foreign aid as an incentive to win political favors could constitute grounds for impeachment. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham called Taylor’s testimony a “coordinated smear attack from far-left lawmakers and radical unelected bureaucrats.”

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Stew about the origins of the quid-pro-quo debate, then look at Taylor’s statement from Tuesday.